Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.

Yuh-Lin Chang

Yun-Ting Lin

Wenjun Zeng

A computer-implemented method and apparatus for tracking an image object within successive first and second image frames. The first frame has a first contour model which defines the image object within the first frame. The first contour model has a global motion parameter which defines global motion of the image object between the first frame and at least one frame preceding the first frame. A second contour model is defined in the second frame based upon the global motion parameter. Image blocks that are associated with points on the first contour model are matched with image blocks associated with points on the second frame to produce motion probabilities associated with each contour point. The motion probabilities are based upon the amount of displacement between respective matched image blocks of the first and second contour models. The shape of the second contour model is locally adjusted based upon the motion probabilities to produce a locally adjusted second contour model.

Apparatus and method for tracking deformable objects

A method and apparatus to automatically index the locations of specified events on a video tape. The events, for example, include touchdowns, fumbles and other football-related events. An index to the locations where these events occur are created by using both speech detection and video analysis algorithms. A speech detection algorithm locates specific words in the audio portion data of the video tape. Locations where the specific words are found are passed to the video analysis algorithm. A range around each of the locations is established. Each range is segmented into shots using a histogram technique. The video analysis algorithm analyzes each segmented range for certain video features using line extraction techniques to identify the event. The final product of the video analysis is a set of pointers (or indexes) to the locations of the events in the video tape.

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Monmouth Junction, NJ, United States of America

Yuh-Lin Chang